College Days: Tango Mutatis
by WesUAH
Summary: While Kim is away at College, Mr. Dr. P., Jim, and Tim, have constructed single engine airplane. But what will happen on their first crosscountry test flight? Written for the March RS dot net contest. Part of the Legacy Universe.


_You're flying on wings of serenity_

_into the blinding light._

_You're the majesty of freedom_

_living life at its height - "Wings of Serenity", by Falconer_

**College Days: Tango Mutatis**

To the eyes of her three builders, she was the second most beautiful thing they had ever seen. As to the primary builder, one Doctor James Timothy Possible, it can be easily surmised just exactly who topped his 'most beautiful' list. For the other two builders, his twin sons Jim and Tim Possible, now aged fifteen, the beautiful ones in question were a pair of lovely young ladies in their fourth period math class. First crushes, and all of that.

Not that they had the guts to admit it yet, but such things come with time.

The second most beautiful thing that they had ever seen was a vehicle, not a person. Even so, according to tradition, she was referred to and thought of in the feminine.

Her name was _Juliet Tango_.

She was an airplane, a Van's Aircraft RV-10 Kit Plane to be exact, FAA registry number JT-0487. She was colored white, with blue and silver detail work and highlights.

James had purchased the kit back in the fall of 2006, shortly after Kim had left for college in Overton. He figured that assembling the plane would be a good Father-Sons bonding project. However, did not expect the level of _enthusiasm_ that the tweebs would bring to the project, nor did he expect just how much their enthusiasm would bring out his own.

By the time they were done, several parts of the kit were no longer spec, namely the control surfaces and the manufacturer-recommended Lycoming engine. In the case of the engine, they had stripped it down to its individual parts and then rebuilt it from the ground up; this rebuild gained them an extra 50 hp in output, as well as a 20 percent increase in overall efficiency.

As for the control surfaces, James simply worked out a few changes that he could make to the ailerons, rudder, elevators, and flaps, which would force a few extra percentage points of performance out of them.

The really fun part, of course, had been the avionics package. Rather than go the bare-bones route, or purchase an off-the-shelf integrated suite, the Possible boys had taken the unconventional step of contacting Wade Load and asking him to design for them a customized, full-function, avionics and fly-by-wire suite.

In the meantime, James made sure that he and the boys were Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) qualified.

At last, though, all was ready. The avionics package, which had everything a pilot could ever ask for, including a full autopilot box, arrived and was installed. All the connections were made, and everything was ground tested. Even the first test flights, which consisted of little more than fifty man-hours worth of circling around Middleton Airport, went without a hitch.

Then, in the first few months of 2008, it came time for the first cross-country test. The initial plan was for the Drs. P. and the tweebs to fly to Overton, surprise Kim and Ron, spend the night, and then top off the gas tank and fly back to Middleton the next morning.

Then came the hitch.

* * *

"I'm really sorry I can't come, dear," Mrs. Dr. P. said over the cell phone. "But Dr. Roam called in sick, and they really need someone to cover that hypothalamus operation."

"I know, dear," James replied. "The boys and I can postpone the flight, if you want-"

"You'll do no such thing. The three of you have worked real hard for this, and you deserve to make the flight on schedule. Say hi to Kimmie and Ron for me?"

"Will do. See you when we get back."

"I'll be waiting. Have a good flight, dear."

"Thanks, honey. I love you."

"Aww, love you too, James. Take care."

"Bye."

James turned off the cell phone and made his was over to the _Tango_. They were in his rented hangar at the airport, and Jim and Tim were well into performing the pre-flight checks. The boys turned towards their father.

"Is Mom coming?" Jim asked.

"Sorry, boys," James replied. "Something's come up at the hospital."

"Aww man-" Tim began.

"That tanks." Jim finished.

"Now boys, I know that we were looking forward to showing off the plane to your mother," James began, "but it looks like that's going to have to wait a bit. For, now though..."

His face took on a manic gleam, the look of a true engineering nerd who was about to _do_ something.

"For now, let's see what this baby can do."

* * *

They did not take the direct route to Overton: that would have simply required them to lock onto the airport's VOR beacon and ride the radial straight in. Instead, they took a slightly more circuitous route, one which would stretch the travel time by a good three hours. The idea, of course, was to put the engine and avionics through their paces on an endurance-testing flight plan.

All went well for the first three major course corrections. James made the first, while Tim (who was in the copilot's seat, since he beat his brother at a game of rock/paper/scissors) made the second. The third turn was made by the autopilot computer. It made the turn so well, in fact, that the Possible boys decided to leave it on until the fourth turn.

That fourth turn was the second hitch.

They couldn't turn the autopilot off. A quick investigation also discovered that they couldn't input any new instructions, and that the autopilot was stuck on its last known course and speed.

At least they would maintain straight and level flight.

* * *

"Okay, boys," James asked an hour and a half later, "what do we have?"

"Well, we're stuck on autopilot-" Jim began.

"And we're nearly three hundred miles off course-"

"We've got enough fuel for a while, but if we can't control the _Tango_-"

"Then we'll run out of fuel and crash," Tim finished glumly.

"Now boys, what have I said about thinking positive?" James scolded with a light grin. "Is there any way we can work around the autopilot, or maybe just cut power to it?"

The tweebs shared a look.

"That might not be the best idea, Dad," Tim replied.

"Yeah," Jim added, "Wade said that just cutting power to the autopilot box could be bad."

"How bad?"

"Dead bad."

"And that changes things how, exactly?"

The tweebs shared another look.

"Hicka-bicka-boo?" Tim asked uncertainly.

"Hoo-sha," Jim replied resignedly, then he pulled out a small multi-tool. Tim nodded and turned back around.

"Dad, get a good grip on the controls," he said. "Jim is going to try to cut the power to the autopilot, and when he does, it's gonna get _real_ bumpy."

"Right," James said, as he and Tim grabbed their respective control yokes. "Just remember, boys-"

"_Anything is possible for a Possible!_" they said in unison.

Then Jim reached down and fiddled with something under his seat. His face screwed up in concentration, and a few moments later they heard a small popping sound.

Then all hades broke loose. Everything but the compass and artificial horizon went haywire, and the _Tango_ herself began to juke from one side to another. James and Tim fought to get the plane under control, while Jim fiddled some more with the connections under his seat. Several minutes later the plane was under control, and the gages and instruments were behaving normally.

Except for the fuel gage.

It wasn't spinning wildly, but it was moving considerably faster that what it should. Jim reached for the mirror controls on the door, and angled one of the side mirrors so he could see the fuel valve.

He turned as white as a sheet.

"Hickabickaboo!" he cried, his voice panicked.

"Hoosha..." Tim replied, his eyes wide. "The autopilot must have triggered a fuel dump, or something."

James looked at the fuel gage, and at their airspeed, and ran a few quick numbers through his head. He did not like the result he came up with.

"Boys, pull out the maps. We've got working compass and GPS, so try and find me an airport that we can reach within the next, oh, thirty minutes or so."

"Does it have to be an airport?"

"Well, I'll take flat land if that's what you can find, but do you really want to have your sister use up a ride to come and pick us up?"

The tweebs went right to work.

* * *

They cut it close, but the nearest airport turned out to be only twenty minutes away. It was a single-runway General Aviation airport located outside the small mining town of Tinyton. It wasn't much, but the map indicated that it had refueling facilities, so it would do.

Oddly enough, no one answered when they hailed the airport to request an emergency landing.

The engine was sputtering as James landed the plane, and he felt quite glad that the boys had insisted on getting that extra bit of efficiency out of the engine. They brought the plane to a stop, engaged the parking brake, and then Tim left to go find someone to bring over the fuel truck. Jim secured the plane, and James pulled out his cell phone and called Mrs. Dr. Possible.

"Hi, honey. Am I interrupting anything?"

"Not really, I'm in between procedures right now. Didn't expect you to call this early."

James briefly explained what had happened on the flight, and their emergency landing in Tinyton.

"Oh my... are you and the boys alright?"

"We're fine, just a little bit shaken. Tim's trying to find us some fuel, then we can get back in the air and head- huh. There's a giant bear-thing running at me..."

Mrs. Dr. P. started yelling at that point, asking what exactly he was talking about, but James had already dropped the phone in his sudden flight from the bear thing.

It wasn't a bear, not exactly. Although it had certain features in common with a standard grizzly bear, its torso and legs were proportioned all wrong: it was clearly humanoid, and bipedal. That odd anatomical juxtaposition, however, was not what caused James and Jim to turn and run. No, what caused that was the hungry, homicidal look in the bear-thing's eyes.

Whatever it was, or had been, it was clearly a carnivore _now_, and had no qualms about eating men.

It gave chase, roaring all the way.

They ran into Tim as they ducked around an out building. He didn't require much convincing, as he could hear the hungry roars of the bear-thing, and therefore he readily joined in with the fleeing.

They ran from the airport all the way into Tinyton itself.

The town was full of similar chimaeras: wolf-things, and mule-things, and coyote-things, along with a couple of duck-things and every possible thing in between, according to the restrictions of geography.

Several of the creatures took notice of the Possible boys, and the more predatorial of those creatures took to the hunt.

There were no humans in sight.

The bear-thing, along with the other hunters, was coming up behind them. As best they could they avoided the creatures, and took refuge in a large building, located in the center of town.

* * *

It looked to a town hall of sorts, or a large community center. A foyer lead into a short hallway, which itself lead into a large, single room, which had a kitchen at one end, along with several bathrooms and a few supply closets.

What occupied their attention, though, was the odd-looking device located at the far end of the building. It had the appearance of a modified Van de Graaff generator, or at least one that was ten feet tall, had two side towers and a control console attached to the central tower, and whose sphere was abnormally large and spiked.

"What do you think?" Jim asked his twin. "Genetic Destabilizer?"

"Gotta be," Tim confirmed. "See the part on top?"

He pointed to the sphere, which looked like the bastard offspring of a disco ball and a porcupine.

"Oh yeah... the Mutagenic Transducer."

"Yup. _Classic_ giveaway."

"What are we dealing with, boys?" James asked as he rooted around in one of the supply closets. He was trying to find something, anything, that he could use as a weapon in case one of the creatures got into the building.

His hands closed around a sturdy-looking broom handle.

"Legacy Tech," the tweebs responded. It was obvious to them.

James froze. Legacy Tech meant Drakken's Legacy. The device at the end of the room had been spawned in the same fevered spate of evil invention that had created the death ray which had nearly killed Ronald... and he wasn't even going to think about the effects of the SORPREN device.

Then another thought came to mind.

"Think those creatures are the townspeople?"

Tim nodded.

"Best bet is that they found this in the mines-"

"Then brought it back here and turned it on," Jim finished.

James thought for a moment.

"Can you reverse it? Make it so it turns the people back?"

The tweebs traded devilish grins.

"Hicka bicka boo?" Tim asked.

"Hoo_sha_," Jim replied smugly.

"Boys," James said in a warning tone, "the idea is to turn the people back _human_. And _don't_ turn me into anything while your at it."

"Aww, Dad," Jim whined, "can't we at least give you lion teeth?"

"No."

The crashing of the door ended any further discussion. Jim and Tim immediately went to work, while James brandished the broom like a staff. He felt that he looked a little bit ridiculous.

The bear-thing entered the building, with several of the other predators filing in behind it. Oddly enough, they seemed almost subservient to the bear-thing, regardless of species, as if the bear-thing was the recognized head of a hunting pack.

The smaller predators began to spread out, as the pack entered the main room, and the whole group began to encircle James. Several of them took notice of Jim and Tim, as they worked on the Genetic Destabilizer, but James quickly whacked those creatures on the nose, which caused them to growl and focus on him exclusively.

He spun the broom around, attempting to sport an intimidating facial expression, like the ones that he'd seen Kim use on occasion.

It didn't have much effect.

_'Either those don't work on mutants,'_ James thought, _'or I'm just not as intimidating as my daughter is...'_

Two of the animals tensed, as if they were about to pounce on him, but a quick growl from the bear-thing sent them slinking back.

_'I guess he claimed me as his prey back at the airport. So it's me versus a bear mutant, eh? Heh, Dad never had to go through this back when _I_ was in high school...'_

The bear-thing roared in challenge, and then it charged at James. He barely managed to dodge the claw swipe that was aimed at his midsection, yet he responded to the attack by whacking the bear-thing on the backside after it had charged past him.

Then he put as much distance between himself and the bear-thing as he could. Which wasn't much, thanks to the snarling ring of barely controlled chimaeras.

The bear-thing, now clearly annoyed, turned back to face him. It let out a low, angry, toothy growl.

James smiled.

He knew there was a little bit of Scot warrior-blood in his family history, including a line of Possibles who had served in the Knights Templar all the way from their foundation to their betrayal and dissolution. The way of old warriors, then, was his family legacy.

That legacy was mostly to be found in his daughter, but just a little bit of it would come out in him, from time to time.

So he looked out at his opponent, a bear-thing that thirsted for his blood, and he smiled.

_'Anything is possible, for a Possible.'_

James raised the broom above his head, and held it there like an ancient claymore.

"_Goddard!_" he cried, and then he charged the bear-thing. The creature was so surprised that it simply stood in place, and James swung the handle down, and broke it in half upon the bear-thing's head.

That had not been in his original plan.

The bear-thing stumbled backwards, momentarily stunned... but then it recovered, and swatted James with a backhanded blow. The rocket scientist fell to the ground, and the remains of the broom flew from his grasp.

Then there came a whirring sound, like a generator starting up. This was following by a long clonging sound, and then a pair of clanks, and finally something like an out-of-tune electric guitar attempting to play an A-chord in Antarctica.

Then a translucent energy wave spread out from the Genetic Destabilizer. It filled the inside of the building, and then it moved beyond the walls and covered the whole of the town.

And then James Timothy Possible was surrounded by a bunch of semi-conscious naked people.

* * *

The bear thing turned out to be a fellow named Mr. York, who just so happened to be the Mayor of Tinyton. After Mayor York woke up, James apologized profusely for hitting him over the head with a broom.

He said to think nothing of it, that he would have done the same thing in James' situation, and then he invited the Possible boys to join them for dinner. Later that night they were gathered, along with the rest of the town, back in the community center, and they all sat down before a sumptuous feast.

"How did they prepare all this food so quickly?" Jim whispered _soto voice_.

Tim glanced away from the mass of teenage girls that were making googly eyes at them.

"Don't knock it, bro," he advised, then he flashed the girls what he considered to be a roguish grin.

They giggled at him, and then returned to making the googly eyes.

James, for his part, was getting the whole story from Mayor York. It turned out that several of the local children were playing in an old mine shaft when they came across the Genetic Destabilizer. Demonstrating a sense of judgment not normally found in those who play in old mineshafts, the kids had gone to get their parents and had _them_ come and take a look at the strange device. The parents had promptly hauled it out of the mineshaft and into town. They brought it to the community center, and the town gathered to try and figure out what to do with the thing.

One of the town councilors was attempting to make a rhetorical point via gesticulation, when his right hand hit what they quickly discovered to be the 'ON' switch. He was very embarrassed.

That was three days prior, and by some miracle, no one had died after the town was mutated.

James just remarked that he was just glad they were able to help, though he did grin a bit when he noticed his boys obviously enjoying the googly eyes that were being made in their general direction.

He was in the process of arranging refueling for the _Juliet Tango_ when his daughter, battle-suit clad, kicked in the front door.

"Okay," Kim Possible cried as she barged in. "Where's my- Daddy?"

"Oh, hey Kimmie-cub!" James said brightly. Kim just gaped at him.

"Dad? Jim? Tim? You guys are all right?" she asked uncertainly.

They nodded.

Kim pulled out her kimmunicator.

"Come in, Ron."

"Hey, KP," Ron replied enthusiastically. "Time for the big entrance yet?"

"Um, actually no," Kim said, as she finally started to grin. "Dad and the tweebs are okay, so I guess we can abort the mission."

"What? Wait, I mean... that's _great_, KP... but man, I was looking forward to showing off my mad entry fu."

She rolled her eyes.

"You can show the mad fu by walking in the front door like a normal person," she replied patiently. "At least, if there _was _a front door..."

Ron said he would, and signed off. Kim, with a curious look on her face, walked over towards where her father and brothers were seated.

"You had me and Mom both worried sick," she admonished her father when she reached the table. "What in the world happened? Mom said that you were saying something about a bear-"

"That was me," Mayor York said.

"You were talking about a bear?" Kim asked, confused.

"I _was_ the bear."

The look that Kim gave him was one that would have been wholly appropriate if a pair of azaleas had spontaneously sprouted from his ears.

As briefly as they could, James and the boys explained to her everything that had happened, from the crash of the autopilot system to the reprogramming of the Genetic Destabilizer.

"You two reprogrammed one of Drakken's little presents?" she said to her brothers, once the tale was finished. "I can't believe I'm saying this... but I'm _impressed_."

"Eh, it was no big," Tim replied with a wink.

"Yeah," Jim echoed. "The only hard part was working around Drakken's sloppy wiring job."

Kim grinned and gave them both a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek. They made sounds of annoyance, but stopped when their apparent 'fan club' giggled and got even more googly eyed.

If that was even possible.

Kim chuckled, stepped away, and then turned back to her father. First she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a really big hug. The she stepped back, drew the kimmunicator, and thrust it at him.

"You call Mom right now, buster," she ordered. James grinned sheepishly and took the kimmunicator from her. He quickly dialed home.

"Honey? This is... yes dear. Yes dear, we're all right. It's a long story, actually, I'll tell you when we get home... well, you see, we've been kinda busy... yes, I know I should have called... yes dear... yes dear. Eh, it should be sometime tomorrow... yes dear.

"I love you too."

THE END


End file.
